An inspiring visit of the exhibit Leduc, Borduas et le paysage de
Saint-Hilaire, presented in 2005 by the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire, incited
a desire to compose works paying hommage to these two painters as well as to Riopelle. The three artists share a student-teacher relationship and span more than a
century of pictorial history in Quebec. L’heure mauve crosses rhythmic
pulsation with the vibration of open strings (that is without fingering), evoking an ecstatic
feeling caused by light and its movement through the foliage of Mont Saint-Hilaire, which
Leduc so loved. Or is it, in the distance, the church bell tower,
decorated by its colours, that we hear resonate? Projections libérantes begins with the sound of
the musicians’ breathing through the mouthpiece of their instrument. One hardly perceives the
change of this steam which condenses into multiple sounds (“broken” and trembling sounds), a
similar transition to the journey of “Borduas, who was the first to recognize himself in total
darkness and to assume his true nakedness” (Pierre Vadeboncœur). The music
gradually reveals itself throughout the work until it explodes with a crash at the very end.
Icebergs et Soleil de minuit — Quatuor en blanc presents a series of
contrasting sections. The work, however, remains bound by the continuous use of natural harmonics
(strings lightly touched, rather than pressed), whose shrill timbre, pure and “white”, elicits the
cold and ice references in Riopelle’s Iceberg
series. Beyond these aspects, by their suggested relationship with time, the three works beckon
contemplation. The precedence of sound over the musical reflects my desire to directly portray
nature. — Simon Martin